Best of 2001: Best Electronic Music Venue

A collective has taken over the café to the left of the main entrance. They've called it the "Don Loope." Electronic music buffs appreciate the joke. It refers to the "loops" they make to provide a constant background for their synthesized music. The Nortec Collective is a bunch of young Tijuana musicians, graphic designers, and architects who share the idea of celebrating the reality of Tijuana: a Mexican border city bumping up against tech-and-wealth-crazed Upper California. The musicians take sounds from traditional northern Mexican music, synthesize them, loop them, mix them with everyday sounds of Tijuana, and turn them into music. "It's something about reclaiming Tijuana for us," says P.G. Beas. Whatever, they have hit a chord with their Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 1 CD. Time magazine, Rolling Stone, and Wired have all featured them as the voice of the new Mexico, and especially the new Tijuana. Rolling Stone called them "frighteningly original." Now they gig in Europe, Britain, Canada. But most weekends you can hear them right here. 8:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.